Garrett County Department of Social Services Conduct Emergency Preparedness Training

The Maryland Department of Human Resources (DHR) is charged with ensuring that Marylanders have access to safe, secure shelters in the event of an earthquake, hurricane or other emergency situation. Over the last few months, Maryland has experienced several of these events, including two hurricanes and an earthquake. Each time, DHR and its local departments of social services acted swiftly to ensure that Maryland citizens were prepared to weather the storm.

On October 18th, the Garrett County Department of Social Services (GCDSS), in collaboration with Garrett County Public Safety, continued their ongoing preparedness training for these sorts of events. The training, which focused on organizing an emergency mobile trailer that will allow GCDSS to respond quickly to any future emergency situations using a standing inventory of basic shelter needs, was funded through a grant from the United States Department of Homeland Security.

This exercise is a pre-service training in preparation for a full-scale hazmat exercise, which will be conducted in May 2012 and involve multiple response agencies within the county. GCDSS will stand up a mock shelter during that drill and test its preparatory plans.